The HfP chat thread – Monday 11th October

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TedL says:

11 Oct11 October 17:15

My son and his partner are currently in Portugal and want to extend their stay. They booked Avios CE seats for avios plus £2. What will it cost to change their flight back to UK, there is availability and can they do it in MMB, dont really want to have to phone.
- TGLoyalty says:
  
  11 Oct11 October 17:30
  
  I believe it costs nothing as long as the Avios and £ price is exactly the same ie peak to peak off peak to off peak. No idea re peak to off peak.
  
  Otherwise it would be £35 each.
  - N says:
    
    11 Oct11 October 18:04
    
    You’ll get charged a change fee to make a change.
    
    Best bet is to get on the phone, ask for an FTV, then ask to use the FTV to make a new booking.
    - pauldb says:
      
      11 Oct11 October 18:14
      
      Changes fees are waived presently under BWC. Normally you can change dates online but haven’t flown the outbound may scupper it: all they can do it try.
    - TGLoyalty says:
      
      11 Oct11 October 18:15
      
      Not true. As I said above right now with the BWC it’s free as long as there’s no difference in cost.
      
      You can even move online. Done it myself only yesterday for a flight in December (preferred date came up)
      - Marina says:
        
        11 Oct11 October 20:00
        
        Think it’s different once the outbound has been flown – best to call
      - TGLoyalty says:
        
        11 Oct11 October 20:07
        
        Nope makes no difference I also changed a return earlier this year both over the phone and on line.
        
        Though these were point to point flights no connection.
      - Harry T says:
        
        11 Oct11 October 20:18
        
        I agree with handsome Mr TG on this one.
      - TedL says:
        
        11 Oct11 October 23:14
        
        Appears he cant change it online so will try phone in the morning, will update if he gets through!
meta says:

11 Oct11 October 17:44

This wasn’t the intern rate? I had an eventful stay there recently to say the least, but go it all comped in the end. Reception at the back is a bit odd, but it was always like that, even post-refurbishment. Breakfast was total chaos.
- Harry T says:
  
  11 Oct11 October 20:33
  
  @meta what went wrong with your stay? I’m considering staying there this weekend.
  - meta says:
    
    11 Oct11 October 21:09
    
    Just about everything… The worst thing was the housekeeping, but you might not encounter same problems as you’re probably not going to get the top suite. Room not ready for hours mind you! Then lounge and breakfast was a total chaos. It would take a while to describe all the issues. The hotel has a special memory for me as it was the first hotel I stayed at with my partner when we first came to the UK and I can’t remember how many afternoon teas we had in Palm Court with friends and family over the years.
    
    I am beginning to realise that covid really killed luxury hotels staff-wise and it will take quite a while before service gets back to what it was.
    - Oh! Matron! says:
      
      12 Oct12 October 08:43
      
      sorry to hear this. Service couldn’t have been better. Checked in at 3pm too
Simon says:

11 Oct11 October 17:47

Has anyone had any luck with the upgrade bidding option on mange my booking with virgin Atlantic

Have some premium economy seats booked to LAS in janurary , curious on what they tend to accept
- Dr Oxford says:
  
  11 Oct11 October 19:46
  
  I was successful upgrading from Economy to Premium at £5 above the minimum from Jamaica (it was £100).
- AL says:
  
  11 Oct11 October 20:07
  
  I’ve bid on pretty much every VS flight I’ve taken in the past five years (~100). I’ve never come lucky. Anecdotally, people seem to suggest that bidding anything less than the retail price isn’t going to get you far…
  
  In the pecking order, bidding is probably low down – after VSFC loyalty, reward redemptions etc. – I’d imagine. Might be just about above standby/crew pax!
- Ste C says:
  
  11 Oct11 October 20:43
  
  I got upgraded from Vegas to Manchester for £600 each a couple of years ago.
Taylor says:

11 Oct11 October 17:50

Does anyone know any 24/7 car hire places near London Stansted? Or where the nearest place would be? I need to make a a last minute booking for early hours tomorrow morning. All stansted hire places shut/no out of hours availability.
- Richie says:
  
  11 Oct11 October 18:33
  
  Any car club cars in Bishop’s Stortford?
- Clive says:
  
  11 Oct11 October 20:13
  
  Think there’s an Enterprise in Braintree
PAL says:

11 Oct11 October 18:52

I understand that as a BA gold I am able to “pool” together another booking say parents have made which is same outbound and inbound flights same cabin to choose seats higher baggage allowance etc. Would this also be the case for AA?
- ChrisC says:
  
  11 Oct11 October 19:01
  
  When you use your gold status to ‘pool’ the bookings (the term BA use is ‘to complete party’) the only benefit that would extendis your ability to select seats for them for fee (via the call centre), they don’t get the additional baggage allowance etc etc
  
  If you want that then they need to be on the same booking as yours.
  - Anuj says:
    
    11 Oct11 October 19:42
    
    Is this a ba gold only benefit or does any airline’s oneworld status extend to all people on one booking
    - TGLoyalty says:
      
      11 Oct11 October 19:51
      
      It’s gold only for BA status not sure if oneworld emeralds can do it too
  - ChrisC says:
    
    11 Oct11 October 19:57
    
    that should be ‘for free’ not ‘for fee’ !
  - Andrew says:
    
    11 Oct11 October 20:23
    
    And they have to be in the same cabin as you.
    - PAL says:
      
      11 Oct11 October 20:30
      
      Will call AA tonight! Hopefully I get a good rep first time round!
  - Babyg says:
    
    12 Oct12 October 00:03
    
    cool, never knew this was a thing, i have 3 of us flying on 3 separate PNRs, where do i find out about this booking “pooling”…? (ive ony seen points pooling)?
    - John says:
      
      12 Oct12 October 06:45
      
      It’s called TCP to complete party
Josh says:

11 Oct11 October 19:01

What would be the easier flight in terms of getting to the start place from London?

CDG > LHR > JFK

or

NCE > LHR > JFK

LCY is closer which makes me think NCE might be easier (Heathrow is an hour drive), however NCE is £130 more per person

Would arrive a day early to explore either city. I know NCE airport is super close to promenade, unsure logistics with CDG.

Thanks
- Richie says:
  
  11 Oct11 October 19:15
  
  Where do you want to get to from CDG?
- Sam G says:
  
  11 Oct11 October 19:30
  
  LCY-NCE I think either hasn’t operated or has been very infrequent so that is something to bear in mind. Paris you can Eurostar. Easy to get to CdG on the train if you are a bit strategic with your hotel location relative to the correct line
  - Richie says:
    
    11 Oct11 October 19:38
    
    BACF are operating two LCY-NCE flights today.
- John says:
  
  12 Oct12 October 06:47
  
  Eurostar, or are there any orly flights from City
  
  Don’t want to waste time getting from cdg to paris
Tracy says:

11 Oct11 October 19:39

I already have a virgin credit card I manage through the virgin money app. My OH has a new virgin credit card account and I have received a supp card on his account. Can I add my supp card to my app? Tried today but card not recognised. Is it only the main account holder who can add their card to their app?
- AL says:
  
  11 Oct11 October 20:09
  
  The app can barely produce a statement… it might be a tall order expecting the Clydesdale to do much else at this stage!
  - Tracy says:
    
    11 Oct11 October 23:17
    
    😂
AL says:

11 Oct11 October 20:11

Have been using Virgin Trains Ticketing for a while now. Wanted to sing its praises – quick and easy to use via the Virgin Red app, tickets issued by email and in app within seconds. 3x VS Points on all spend. Never had any acceptance issues. Works a treat. Simpler and easier than Trainline imo plus points.
- Bigmaggot says:
  
  11 Oct11 October 20:25
  
  I booked for the first time on Friday. Total opposite experience, kept getting “failed to authenticate, please try a different form of payment” on 3 different cards, was just about to give up but then Apple Pay poped up on my fourth attempt which worked. Thought it’s odd they give a post example as 12345…
- BuildBackBetter says:
  
  11 Oct11 October 20:38
  
  Best train app for me is cross country trains. No major points earning opportunities, but works flawlessly. The new flexi ticket booking and usage is simple and very user friendly.
- PMG says:
  
  11 Oct11 October 20:46
  
  Fully agree with – only started using the last couple of months and has worked exceptionally well so far plus the points earning possibilities are decent 🙂